Special Collections: Finding Aids

The Kelvin Smith Library's Special Collections Research Center is the repository for the papers of many men and women of national prominence. We will continually be adding additional collections to this site.

Charles G. Abbot (.42 linear feet, dating 1918-1920)
Charles G. Abbot (1872-1973), an eminent astronomer, began working at the Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Laboratory in Washington, D.C. in 1895. Among other topics, he studied the sun's radiation and its effect on the earth.

 

Donald J. Angus (3.78 linear feet, dating 1914-1962)
Donald J. Angus was a self-made engineer-inventor who was granted 47 patents on electrical and mechanical devices. He was a partner with John W. Esterline in the Esterline-Angus engineering firm.

 

Louis S. Auchincloss (.42 linear feet, dating ca. early 1970s)
Prolific American-born author who has written more than 25 novels since 1945, including 1972's I Come As A Thief.

 

Babcock & Wilcox (.42 linear feet, dating 1903-1904)
Manufacturer of boilers and electrical generating units.

 

David R. Bender (7 linear feet, dating 1956-2001)
An alumnus of CWRU's School of Library and Information Science, Dr. David R. Bender was the Executive Director of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) from 1979 until his retirement in 2001.

 

Ernest J. Bohn
Ernest J. Bohn was a pioneer--locally, nationally, and internationally--in the field of public housing. His career spanned from the 1920s until his retirement in 1968.

 

Charles F. Brush, Sr. (25 linear feet, dating 1842-1967)
Charles F. Brush, Sr., (1849-1929) was a pioneer in the commercial development of electricity. His economical arc light system revolutionized the light industry in the 1880s.

 

William D. Buckingham (4.84 linear feet, dating 1921-1968)
William D. Buckingham, a 1925 and 1930 graduate of Case School of Applied Sciences, worked as an electrical engineer for Western Union Telegraph Company. His inventions included a concentrated arc-lamp employing molten zirconium, as well as sensors used in nuclear bomb systems.

 

Cleveland Laboratory of the Mechanical Rubber Company (.5 linear feet, dating 1930)
A 1930 photograph volume documenting the activities of the Cleveland Laboratory of the Mechanical Rubber Company.

 

Cleveland Rocket Society Collection (3.26 linear feet, dating 1934-1938, 1963-1964)
The Cleveland Rocket Society existed ca. 1934-1938. John Tascher wrote a history of the Society in 1963-1964. The Society's and Tascher's papers are included in the collection.

 

Fred H. Colvin
Mechanical engineer and author Fred H. Colvin devoted his career to chronicling the development of the machine tool industry in books and periodicals from 1883 until his death in 1965.

 

Hugh S. Cooper (19.17 linear feet)
Hugh S. Cooper was the first to produce elemental beryllium in this country in 1916. He founded and named the Kemet Laboratories; the Beryllium Corporation of America; and Cooper Metallurgical Associates; and was granted over 80 patents.

 

Benedict Crowell
Benedict Crowell was a prominent Cleveland business man, civic leader, Brigadier General, U.S. Army; and Assistant Secretary of War and Director of Munitions during the First World War. The collection consists largely of Crowell's war-time papers as Assistant Secretary of War.

 

Allston Dana
Allston Dana was a Civil Engineer who worked on many bridges and on the third lock of the Panama Canal. The collection consists of Dana's working papers regarding the design of the third lock of the Panama Canal and several bridges, and includes blueprints, drawings, printed matter and correspondence.

 

Fritz Sage Darrow
Dr. Darrow extensively studied the Belgian mystic and physician, Francois Mercure Van Helmont. He also researched Cambridge platonism, Leibnitz, seventeenth century science, theosophy, Kabalistic literature, and the early Quakers. Darrow's personal papers and research materials comprise this collection.

 

William Clarence Ebaugh
William Clarence Ebaugh, graduate of and professor at Denison University, Granville, Ohio, was a chemist concerned with the atomic weight of arsenic, steel analysis, the pollution of the atmosphere by smelter fumes, smelter smoke, and gas producers.

 

Howard J. Garber
Dr. Howard J. Garber's interest in history, particularly British royalty, led to his affinity for collecting over 2,000 autograph letters, documents and books. The collection focuses primarily on political, historical and literary figures in Great Britain and includes signatures of all the Prime Ministers and First Lords of the Treasury.

 

S. Colum Gilfillan
Sociologist and author S. Colum Gilfillan, born in 1889, taught, researched for the government, and studied inventions and patents.

 

Park Dixon Goist (.42 linear feet, dating 1928-1981)
A faculty member (since 1971), now emeritus, at Case Western Reserve University, Park Dixon Goist has published works on Lewis Mumford. The collection consists of correspondence, arranged chronologically between Goist and Mumford (ca. 1966-1981) and two reprints of articles about Mumford written by Goist. There are also issues of the journals Architecture and Architectural Record containing articles written by Lewis Mumford.

 

Norman P. Goss
Norman P. Goss was a Cleveland area inventor and researcher who graduated from Case Institute of Technology in 1925. He made significant contributions to the field of metals research.

 

Charles Martin Hall
Charles Martin Hall graduated from Oberlin College. He invented the electrolytic process for the manufacture of aluminum and was president of the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa).

 

William Powell Jones (.84 linear feet, dating 1750-1909)
Longtime Western Reserve University faculty member and adminstrator (1930-1967) who taught English, as well as being a collector of autographed letters.

 

Lawrence Maxwell Krauss
Lawrence Maxwell Krauss is Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics, Professor of Astronomy, and Director of the Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics at Case Western Reserve University. He is an internationally known theoretical physicist with wide research interests, including the interface between elementary particle physics and cosmology, where his studies include the early universe, the nature of dark matter, general relativity and neutrino astrophysics. Prof. Krauss is the author of 7 popular books, several of which are international best sellers, and hundreds of journal and newspaper articles.

Frances W. and H. Jack Lang (1.26 linear feet, dating 1695-1991)
Mr. H. Jack Lang was a well-known advertising executive and philanthropist in Cleveland, Ohio. He founded the H. Jack Lang Co. in 1932, which became Lang, Fisher and Stashower Inc. in 1937 and Liggett-Stashower in 1987. In 1934, he founded the Wolf Magazine of Letters, and edited it for 60 years. Mr. Lang also began to buy and collect original letters. He donated his collection (consisting of 49 letters) to Case Western Reserve University in 1977, and continued to make donations of letters until his death in 1996.

Karal Ann Marling
Karal Ann Marling, Assistant Professor of Art History at Case Western Reserve University, studied Federal Art programs in Cleveland. Her papers complement the Ernest J. Bohn collection.

 

Charles Baldwin Sawyer
Charles Baldwin Sawyer, 1895-1964, scientist and businessman, helped found the Beryllium and Rochell Salt industries, and with Charles F. Brush, Jr., founded the Brush Development and the Brush Beryllium Companies.

 

Daniel Jeremy Silver
Daniel Jeremy Silver, 1928-1989, Professor of Religion at Case Western Reserve University and Rabbi, well-known scholar, teacher, author, and eloquent preacher and an important leader and participant in Jewish organizations as well as a social activist showing concern for all people.

 

Warner and Swasey Collection (26.36 linear feet)
Worcester Warner, 1846-1929, and Ambrose Swasey, 1846-1937, founded the Warner and Swasey Company in 1880. The Warner and Swasey Company was well known for building telescopes, as well as astronomical observatories. Contained in this collection are personal papers from both Warner and Swasey, and records from the Warner and Swasey Company.